I am a Bird

“I am a Bird”

Please, tell me it’s okay, that it’s alright,
That the wings I’ve searched for in my heart
Will be born among skies I’ve never known:
A vault of blue that no wind has crossed
Over meadows where no man has walked.

I am a bird. And I long to soar—
But the cage is all I have ever seen.
I yearn to sing, but my voice is in the throats
Of bells that toll the ending of the season of song
There is frost to come, a silent mist pervades
A shadow falls upon a world of shades.

My nest is bare, there are no voices.
My children are dying, never born:
In my heart, they might have sung,
They might have wept as I weep now    
A lament for what never could be
Soundless as the heavens I cannot reach.

I cannot sing just as I cannot fly.
The seasons dry with the leaves.
A pale moon looks nakedly through the cage
Where the seeds will never grow.
I am not beautiful. I am the silence.
I am the dying. And I am the grave.

Bear me to the shoreless seas of uncharted skies.
Are they as blue as I have dreamed?
Embark with me upon these shades
Of all that has flown before.
I am a bird. And I am not beautiful,
Save in the unborn season that has passed me by.

© 2022 Marten Hoyle